One Giant Leap for Mankind
by CrookedNeighbor
Summary: The Silence invaded Earth, and the Doctor helped the people fight back. He never mentioned the implications of their victory. "You should kill us all on sight."


Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own Doctor Who, or I could just have Moffat explain all the twists to me and I'd never be confused.

AN: I'm working off the assumption here that the TARDIS team remember how they defeated the Silence in Day of the Moon. If they don't...well, this is fan fiction. It doesn't _have_ to be accurate. Uh... I threw in Sally and Larry because I feel like they'd be more likely to be affected than just any random folk. This is the first Doctor Who fic I've written and the first I've posted anywhere so please be gentle. :)

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><p>There was a lull in the babble that filled the crowded restaurant. Suddenly Sally felt cold, her hands on the table were white and shaking. She looked across at Larry, who seemed almost as shaken as she was. In an instant, the silence passed.<p>

"Do you ever get the feeling," Sally started, confused when her voice sounded quiet and scared. She cleared her throat and started again. "Do you ever get the feeling that you've… lost a minute? I mean-"

"No, I know what you mean," Larry cut her off. They were quiet again for a second, while conversation continued around them. Each of them was thinking back to the incident with the Angels, and wondering if the other was thinking of it too.

"It feels like… like you've been staring off into space for a minute, but when you snap out of it you can't remember what you were thinking of."

Sally nodded and furrowed her brow. She'd never been the sort to let a mystery pass her up… and that had gotten her into a lot of trouble, eventually. Since then, since the Doctor, she hadn't gotten any better. Now she glanced around the restaurant, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

And of course she found something. Nothing was ever 'nothing' anymore. A spot of black by the side of the booth… Sally kept her eyes trained on it - another thing she'd picked up since the mess with the Angels - as she slid over to the edge of the seat.

There, laying half underneath the table next to them, was a grey creature in a suit. Its face reminded her of the stereotypical alien from the movies, an inverted-teardrop of a head, slanted black eyes, and no mouth or nose. Every stupid costume in every movie was nothing compare to the actual thing, real, terrifying, and bleeding on the floor next to her.

"What?" she gasped, disbelieving. There was a shattered pitcher by its side, one she now recognized as identical to the one on her table.

Sally wanted to yell and draw attention to the creature on the floor, but something told her that she should keep an eye on it. She heard Larry saying her name but kept her eyes on the alien until he fell silent.

"What is that?" he muttered. The grey thing clutched a gash on its head and spoke, despite not having a mouth.

"You are murderers, all of you…" it hissed, falling back toward the floor. "Murderers…"

Sally and Larry looked at each other over the table. She felt cold, and her hands were shaking, but she didn't know why.

"Must've… must've zoned out for a minute there," Larry said. Sally heard the note in his voice that said something was off, something was just… intensely wrong. She felt it, too, in the pit of her stomach, this terrible feeling that she'd done something.

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><p>Rory didn't realize, until they were back on the TARDIS, back to safety, with the Doctor whirling around and making little sense once again, what they had just done.<p>

Every human being. Nearly every human being, for thousands of years, would see that video at some point. And they would see the message in it, the one the Doctor had hidden, even though they wouldn't remember it.

"You should kill us all on sight."

And they would. They turned human beings into killing machines, into murderers. He saw now, that he could have already killed dozens of the Silence. Back when he was just Rory, Rory the nurse and his mad Kiss-o-Gram girlfriend, he might have had blood on his hands even then.

He'd said, before, that the Doctor made people dangerous. That he was dangerous. He'd never really forgotten it, but it'd sunk down to the back of his mind.

Rory looked at the Doctor, talking at the controls with River and Amy. Amy grinned and called him stupid-face and told him about their next crazy adventure, and Rory smiled back and let himself get pulled back into their mad life.

But he wouldn't forget. Traveling with the Doctor was almost like encountering the Silence; that life, that adventure could make you forget about the danger, about the things you had to do from time to time. For the greater good.

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><p>Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale left the restaurant chatting about something or other. Inside, a grey figure pulled itself to its feet and left after them, blood dripping down its eerie 'face.' It slunk down an alleyway and collapsed at the bottom of a wall, seeming beaten.<p>

"The great Doctor, beacon of light and compassion," it hissed to the empty air. "You've made them murderers, all of them."


End file.
